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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Never have I savoured such melancholy! Although the main characters live with pensive sadness, I was quite content to while away "the hours" reading this Pulitzer Prize-winning book (deceptively quite short in pages; the story is long in ideas, requiring much reflection). So now I am intrigued enough to seek out the 2002 movie (starring Meryl Streep! Nicole Kidman! Julianne Moore!) and compare the two literary experiences.
Melancholy has never been written about so beautifully! Despite the pensive sadness that served as the underpinning of the main characters' lives, I was very content to while away "the hours" that were required to read this book (that was short on pages, but long on ideas).
This is the story of three women, each a generation apart, told over one day in their lives. One of the threads tells the story of Clarissa Vaughn who is hosting a party for her award-winning poet-friend Richard who is suffering from the ravages of AIDS. Around fifty years earlier, Laura Brown is an American housewife and young mother who over the course of her day spends some of it reading Mrs Dalloway hoping to escape domestic drudgery in the pages of the book. The third main character of the book is the troubled author, Virginia Woolf and it is set on the day that she begins to write Mrs Dalloway.
It is a clever idea linking the three stories all intertwined together with the common link of the book Mrs Dalloway. Picking up on details of their lives, Clarissa shopping for flowers for Richard, Laura wanting to stay in bed rather than face the stark realities of that day and Virginia avoid eating to spend time alone and writing. He picks up on their fears and insecurities as well as the small victories they pass through the day.
I have read one of his other books previously, Land’s End: A Walk in Provincetown, and really liked it. This had been recommended to me via a friend on Twitter and managed to get hold of a copy, so I’d thought I’d give it a go. However, even though the writing is quite special, especially one particular moment that is one of the key points of the book, it really didn’t work for me. Not sure why, possibly because the link between the three characters is gossamer thin, but I think it might have been because of the Woolf connection. The only book of hers that I have read before, To The Lighthouse, I could not get along with and so it seems with this one.
It is a clever idea linking the three stories all intertwined together with the common link of the book Mrs Dalloway. Picking up on details of their lives, Clarissa shopping for flowers for Richard, Laura wanting to stay in bed rather than face the stark realities of that day and Virginia avoid eating to spend time alone and writing. He picks up on their fears and insecurities as well as the small victories they pass through the day.
I have read one of his other books previously, Land’s End: A Walk in Provincetown, and really liked it. This had been recommended to me via a friend on Twitter and managed to get hold of a copy, so I’d thought I’d give it a go. However, even though the writing is quite special, especially one particular moment that is one of the key points of the book, it really didn’t work for me. Not sure why, possibly because the link between the three characters is gossamer thin, but I think it might have been because of the Woolf connection. The only book of hers that I have read before, To The Lighthouse, I could not get along with and so it seems with this one.
dark
reflective
sad
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book said some stuff I needed to hear about my own grief. The Virginia stuff felt quite intrusive especially the kiss bit (?!) and the opening chapter. Hard to fictionalise a real life especially when it ended so tragically. But the style is a brilliant homage to Mrs Dalloway. I love the twist at the end. There are a lot of themes in this to think about, the main takeaway hopefully being "this is enough".
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide
Moderate: Homophobia, Grief
Minor: Incest
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
There are certain books that I want to own hundreds of copies of, so that when I am talking to someone who loves to read I can press a copy into their hands and say, "This. You must read this."
"The Hours" is one of these books. I can only think of a few other authors - Jeanette Winterson and Gabriel Garcia Marquez off the top of my head - that have so moved me with their prose. Such haunting and elegant beauty in the simplest of images, the smallest of instances. Cunningham captures connection and disconnection, the double-edged sword of self-awareness, the rise and fall of day-to-day joy and capitulations to absolute perfection.
"The Hours" is one of these books. I can only think of a few other authors - Jeanette Winterson and Gabriel Garcia Marquez off the top of my head - that have so moved me with their prose. Such haunting and elegant beauty in the simplest of images, the smallest of instances. Cunningham captures connection and disconnection, the double-edged sword of self-awareness, the rise and fall of day-to-day joy and capitulations to absolute perfection.
"E c'è anche lei, Clarissa, non più la signora Dalloway: non c'è più nessuno a chiamarla così. E ha un'altra ora davanti a sé."
Ho scelto questa frase per esprimere quello che per me questo libro ha significato, perché suo modo,da sola è in grado di spiegare tutto.
Ho scelto questa frase per esprimere quello che per me questo libro ha significato, perché suo modo,da sola è in grado di spiegare tutto.